At work sites along highways it is often desirable if not necessary to display various types of temporary signs such as warning signs and traffic control signs. As the work progresses, these temporary signs may be moved from place to place, and upon completion of the work removed from the work site for reuse at a different work site.
Various techniques have been employed for displaying temporary signs along a highway as during a construction or repair project. At one extreme is the use of permanently installed support stands for the signs. An obvious drawback of this approach is that the support stand, being permanently installed at the particular work site, cannot be reused at another work site. Hence, less costly and more flexible alternative techniques have been employed.
These alternative techniques include the use of a variety of portable support stands that are characterized by the provision of a ground engaging base structure of sufficient width to hold upright a sign post or other sign supporting structure. To prevent toppling of these support stands, sand bags or the like are often placed atop the base structure. Unfortunately, these support stands are still prone to toppling under high wind conditions or by reason of air turbulence generated by the passage of large vehicles such as trucks if the sign is positioned close to the path of moving traffic.
Another type of portable support stand for temporary signs that has been proposed is a support device that is mountable atop the concrete barriers that are often used at work sites to protect the work site, to define traffic lanes, etc. The concrete barriers are typically in the form of cast concrete blocks that have a broad, flat base and taper upwardly to a relatively narrow flat top about 30 to 40 inches above the road surface. This prior art support device has an inverted U-shape structure that could be placed atop the concrete barrier with the depending legs thereof straddling the upper portion of the concrete barrier. The legs are provided with set screws that could be screwed inwardly to engage the sides of the concrete barrier to hold the support stand to the concrete barrier.